May 2024 Grocery Challenge

wishus

Need to update my total. Currently up to £122.13/250.

Meal plan:
Yesterday chilli con carne - thought I'd have some cream to use up as sour cream, but it was past use. I did however have avocado for the guacamole!
Today: prawn and broccoli stir fry (will need to soak some chickpeas for tomorrow. Must also freeze the duck to stretch the date on it for Sunday). 
Wednesday: harissa chicken, houmous, slaw, flatbread 
Thursday: beetroot and goats cheese risotto ( but I have no risotto rice, so might be a bulgar thing)
Friday: chicken katsu and rice 
Saturday: fish, potatoes, peas
Sunday : roast duck, beetroot, blackberries, roast potatoes. 

goldfinches

I spent an eye popping £25.24 in Sainsby's on olive oil, spring onions, fine beans, instant coffee and loo rim block. I know I could do without the loo block but it took me half an hour to clean the accumulated limescale from the pan on Sunday morning which I did not enjoy so I decided to buy the rim block on offer to see if it would help. Then I had to go on to Mark's to get silken tofu and frozen petits pois which came to £3.85.
The Baking Budget spent £4.25 in Sainsby's on digestive biscuits, unsalted butter and unwaxed lemons and then spent £3.80 in Marks on eggs.

That makes my new total for the main budget £84.16/£150 which is an average daily spend of £6.01. 
The Baking Budget now stands at £19.30/£25 which is an average spend of £6.43 per Wednesday.

PS I meant to say that £16.10 of the Sainsby's spend was on the olive oil and I've decided that rather than swapping to a cheaper oil I'm not sure I'll like the taste of, I'll reduce the amount of oil I use in any recipe I make.

PipneyJane

Soontobeoap said:

I have been thrown again. Was expecting DH to be released from hospital on Monday or Tuesday but they discharged him late yesterday. Result was a mad dash to buy lots of tempting light food as he is not hungry and needs to eat. Wizzed round Asda just gravbing things off shelves. No list! Even got to the checkout and had to buy 3 bags! Life has got in the way again! £51.00 spent. 🙁

@Soontobeoap, hope your DH is recovering well.

I have a couple of spends to declare from yesterday:  £12 in MrT’s on 6x500g packets of bulgar wheat; followed by £5.89 in L!dl on some ice lollies (£1.39) and 2 tubs of their oxy-bleach (we had a 50p-off-per-tub voucher to exploit).  The bulgar wheat will see us through for at least a couple of months; we go through about 2 packs a month.  It’s risen considerably in price - up 60p on a year ago - but I’ve been unable to find anywhere locally that sells it cheaper or in bigger quantities. (We’re in West London.)

Once you take into account £6.11 of shrapnel, transferred to various money boxes, the above brings our total spend for May to £97.80/£160 leaving £62.20 for the rest of the month.

We will have some further shopping to do today in L!dl, mainly on fresh dairy products.  We were out and about yesterday so couldn’t buy anything that needed refrigerating.

- Pip

Suffolk_lass

Bought half a lamb, that was reared here in our village, and had a good life. Paid a little more than normal, but it is once a year

Soontobeoap

Spent £18.00 in m and S. Wouldnt normally shop there but parked in their car park to nip to the chemist quickly. Bought some chocolate mousses to try and get DH eating and a treat wrap for my lunch oh and a reduced apple crumble thing for the freezer. How was that £18.00?

Thank you for kind messages for DH. Gp has now got involved and is doing lots of tests so should know more soon. 

veggielove

Hello all, we are a family of 4. 2 adults 2 kids. Kids are not good eaters and 1 is worse than other (Autism) so I have been spending unlimited amounts( I have no idea how much)  on food and I wasn't able to stick to a much needed budget to get out of debt again. I cant cook for us all. Its me and husband the kids each eat a different meal... No choice in this. 

We are less than a year into being first time home owners. CC debt around 800 and 3 loans totalling around 9000 all in  (1 is zero interest finance loan for a large furniture outlet )

The kids always want magazines( like a fiver a go) and toys at shop and obviously chocolate, meltdown if its a no (it is a no when we are skint weeks ) but I treat them far too much when the money is sitting there.

I have started having the shopping delivered now (usually a Sunday so we have food in for the week) I think a realistic budget will be 130-150 a week for food, toiletries, cleaning etc, nappies too. I always have to do a top up mid week though (bread, snacks, meat or whatever, veg/salad items) 

Suffolk_lass

goldfinches said:

I spent an eye popping £25.24 in Sainsby's on olive oil, spring onions, fine beans, instant coffee and loo rim block. I know I could do without the loo block but it took me half an hour to clean the accumulated limescale from the pan on Sunday morning which I did not enjoy so I decided to buy the rim block on offer to see if it would help. Then I had to go on to Mark's to get silken tofu and frozen petits pois which came to £3.85.
The Baking Budget spent £4.25 in Sainsby's on digestive biscuits, unsalted butter and unwaxed lemons and then spent £3.80 in Marks on eggs.

That makes my new total for the main budget £84.16/£150 which is an average daily spend of £6.01. 
The Baking Budget now stands at £19.30/£25 which is an average spend of £6.43 per Wednesday.

PS I meant to say that £16.10 of the Sainsby's spend was on the olive oil and I've decided that rather than swapping to a cheaper oil I'm not sure I'll like the taste of, I'll reduce the amount of oil I use in any recipe I make.

I just wanted to mention that citric acid in very hot water instantly removes limescale (eg, lift off cistern lid and pour over the handle mechanism and watch it disappear, to cure a seizing up handle). In a spray bottle it will do the same in the toilet

otb666

@goldfinches After years of trying various cleaning methods for a positively horrendous limescale I now empty the toilet of water using a big sponge and then i have found the pummy stones on a string are soft enough to remove limescale and not damage or mark toilet.  Dont use the normal hard pummy stones they will mark the toilet and remember to remove the limescale otherwise it will just settle on bottom again.  @Suffolk_lass what citrus acid do you use?  I now only have to do this once a fortnight now.  

otb666

@veggielove I saw a programme on tv, cant remember which one.  They showed what school dinners the french kids have and it was tomato soup for starter then veg+bean  pasta and mint mouse for afters.  The tomatoes they did in the veg+bean dish then scouped out and mashed up.  It was very good and cheap when you think about ingredients. The librarys are a very good resouse  and free.  The CS have loads of good toys that are a lot cheaper I recently bought £2 toy there that costs £18 in shops.  I wish i had done things cheaper when my were younger but its easier said then done is nt it.  You are doing a fantastic job

goldfinches

@Soontobeoap - hope your OH is eating now and that the test results are quick as well as good.
@Suffolk_lass and @otb666 - thankyou for the helpful tips for limescale removal from the loo, I shall try the citric acid one first because it sounds so much easier to do.
@veggielove - having deliveries sounds like a good way of avoiding the extra treating and/or meltdowns and I expect you might find it easier to stick to your list when the supermarket aren't using their ways of increasing what you put in the trolley on you too. Like @otb666 I wish I'd spent more time in charity shops and libraries when I was younger but I do agree with her that you're doing a fantastic job at juggling everything for your family.

I'm going to be spending some time in an area of the city I don't usually visit tomorrow morning while I wait for my bicycle to be serviced so I'm looking forward to having a mooch round the three or four asian supermarkets along that road and, if necessary, I shall be assigning my spend to the treats budget rather than the GC one, but we shall see if I can restrain my acquisitive urges or not.